“But that to me is unacceptable and I said that today. It shouldn’t matter if you live in a zip code where the population is 500 or 500,000,” Smith says.

Smith praises the volunteers who’ve arrived in the Bootheel, describing it as the “American spirit at its best.”

He says the Salvation Army is also assisting residents.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) will be available at the Malden Community Center on Friday (March 2) from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. providing information and assistance to those impacted by the tornado.

The Malden Community Center is located at 607 North Douglass Street.

DNR has been dealing with numerous downed trees.

Click here to listen to Missourinet news director Brian Hauswirth’s full interview with U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, which was recorded on March 1, 2018 outside the Kirkpatrick Building in Jefferson City:

Cape Girardeau television station KFVS reports the tornado damaged 66 homes and injured four in Malden, which is in Dunklin County.

KFVS reports 40 of the homes sustained major damage, and that 11 families were displaced without a home.

U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Salem, is scheduled to tour the tornado damage Thursday. Smith will also meet with Malden Mayor Denton Kooyman and area first responders.

KFVS reports it was an EF2 tornado, with wind speeds of about 115 miles per hour.

Damage is estimated at about $2 million.

Governor Eric Greitens (R) traveled to Malden on Monday to visit with impacted residents. Greitens also met with Malden Police, and thanked first responders and linemen who were working to restore power.

“This (Malden) is a resilient community,” Greitens said Monday. “In the face of serious danger and damage, the faith, strength, and spirit of the community is unbroken.”

Greitens also notes a nursing home in nearby Matthews was impacted by the tornado. Greitens visited the Matthews nursing home, which is in New Madrid County.

Highway safety issues are a top priority in 2018 for a bipartisan group of Missouri mayors.

Kansas City Mayor Sly James speaks to the Capitol Press Corps in Jefferson City on February 14, 2018 (Brian Hauswirth photo)

A group known as “Missouri Mayors United for Progress” met Wednesday at Jefferson City’s Capitol Plaza Hotel, and they elected Kansas City Mayor Sly James as president of the organization.

James, who was a military policeman in the United States Marine Corps, is focused on safety issues.

“So I fully support a bill that will make it absolutely mandatory, subject to a fine, for not buckling up your seat belt and for texting on the phone while you’re driving,” James tells the Capitol Press Corps.

Under current Missouri law, drivers cannot be stopped solely to determine seat belt compliance. Under Reiboldt’s legislation, those caught not wearing a seat belt would be cited for an infraction and subject to a fine “not to exceed ten dollars.”

The Missouri Mayors United for Progress are also supporting MoDOT’s buckle up/phone down initiative, which is aimed at getting you to wear your seat belt and to put your phone down while driving.

Jefferson City Mayor Carrie Tergin has led the effort to promote the campaign, which is known as BUPD on electronic message boards across the state.

“Six out of ten people killed in Missouri traffic crashes were unbuckled in 2017,” Tergin says. “Only nine states ranked lower than Missouri in safety belt use.”

MoDOT says that from 2014 to 2016, 62 percent of all drivers and passengers killed in crashes were unrestrained.

James and the other mayors also addressed the importance of helping cities, during Wednesday’s news conference.

James says cities and towns are Missouri’s economic engines.

“And we are very much in wanting to make sure that the (state) legislators here know who we are and know that we’re going to be active,” says James.

James says the mayors will be vocal and aggressive, in trying to get lawmakers to approve their agenda.

“(We) won’t be disrespectful, but we need to make sure that they’re paying attention to our needs, not political rhetoric and ideologies,” James says.

James and Tergin were joined at the news conference by about 25 other mayors, including Springfield Mayor Ken McClure and Florissant Mayor Tom Schneider.

In the wee hours of Friday morning, U.S. Congress sent to President Donald Trump, R, a federal funding resolution that finances the government through March 23. Missouri U.S. Senators Roy Blunt, R, and Claire McCaskill, D, voted in favor of the measure. The state’s U.S. House members voted along party lines to get the massive spending package to the White House.

The bi-partisan plan includes $300 billion increases in defense and domestic spending. The military funding covers the next two years. The financial package unleashes new funding for America’s crisis with prescription drug addiction, infrastructure investments, disaster relief aid, and multi-year funding for community health centers and a children’s health insurance safety net program.

The ups and downs in the markets could be partially alleviated by the agreement’s extension of the federal debt ceiling that allows more borrowing into March 2019.

President Trump’s blessing would end a brief government shutdown for the second time in less than one month. White House officials say Trump will sign the measure into law, despite an earlier reported indication that he would support a shutdown if lawmakers fail to reach a comprehensive immigration deal this week.

Congress has until midnight to pass a federal budget deal or face a government shutdown. According to Politico, White House officials are urging federal agencies to prepare for a lapse in government spending.

Missouri U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt

Missouri U.S. Senators Roy Blunt, R, and Claire McCaskill, D, continue working with their chamber on an agreement. Blunt’s office says the deal includes a two-year extension of funding for community health centers totaling $7.8 billion – an increase of $600 million. Blunt has championed the reauthorization of community health centers funding and McCaskill has co-sponsored the measure.

“More than half a million Missourians, many of whom are uninsured or on Medicaid, rely on community health centers for quality, affordable health care,” says Blunt.

Additionally, the legislation contains an additional $165 billion in defense funding over two years and an additional four years of funding for a children’s health insurance safety net program often called CHIP.

“These are resources that will save lives, strengthen our military and boost jobs,” she says.

The agreement calls for boosting federal spending by about $300 billion and raising the debt ceiling until March 2019. The holdup in that chamber appears to be coming from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). He wants an amendment vote to keep Congress under strict budget caps, as well as stripping the debt limit from the package. Senate GOP leaders reportedly still think they can negotiate with Paul.

If the Senate passes the budget package, the House is having its own difficulties. Conservative opposition is making Republican leaders reach out to Democrats. The measure does not include changes to immigration policy that would end uncertainty for 1.8 million immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children – a provision that Democrats have been fighting for.

Republican aides have told the national media that GOP leaders have begun discussing a one- or two-day continuing resolution to avoid a shutdown.

Missouri’s Republican U.S. House members have voted in support of a temporary budget resolution but the state’s Democratic Representatives opposed it. The measure includes military spending through the end of the fiscal year in September.

West-Central Missouri Republican Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler says the proposal would fund the government through March 23.

“It is imperative that the Senate take up and pass this bill so that all of our military, including Fort Leonard Wood and Whiteman Air Force base, have the funds they need to be able to meet the threats facing us around the world,” says Hartzler.

Hartzler, whose district includes Fort Leonard Wood and Whiteman Air Force Base, serves on the House Armed Services Committee.

Western Missouri Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver wants the spending plan to include funding for more programs.

These are the priorities Democrats are fighting for:
-Funding for the opioid epidemic
-More funding for our veterans
-Community Health Centers
-Money for disaster relief
-Protecting Pensions
–#ProtectDreamers
All of these ideas are bipartisan. Why no action? #DoYourJob

The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on the proposal. Politico reports that the Senate is expected to strip out the military spending because of Democratic opposition. The measure would have to go back to the House for another vote.

The federal government funding deadline is Thursday night. If lawmakers in Washington fail to pass a temporary spending plan by then, America faces another federal shutdown.

National media is reporting that President Donald Trump, R, has indicated he would support a shutdown if lawmakers fail to reach a comprehensive immigration deal this week – a position that was not previously considered a top priority as part of the spending debate.

The National Weather Service in Springfield has confirmed that an EF-1 tornado touched down last night near Hoberg in southwest Missouri. The twister caused minor damage to one home and destroyed a few outbuildings, an irrigation system, two ski boats, and trees. Storm assessors measured winds of up to 95 miles per hour from the storm. No injuries were reported.

Meteorologist and Hydrologist Megan Terry tells Missourinet it’s somewhat unique to have tornadoes swirling around in the Show-Me State this time of year. She says funnels during the winter months tend to be lower-level ones with ratings of EF-0 and EF-1.

The last time a tornado touched down in Missouri in January was in 2013. On January 29, several low-level twisters ripped through the area near west-central Missouri’s Nevada to the St. Louis region. Terry says the storm was part of a larger system from Mississippi to Kentucky.

Prior to 2013, a system in mid-Missouri’s Pulaski and Phelps Counties spawned an outbreak of mostly low-level twisters and one EF-3 tornado during the early morning hours of January 8, 2008. Terry says the storm, which included the assessment of about 35 tornado touchdowns, injured three people that night.

MOUNT VERNON, Mo. — The National Weather Service office in Springfield has deployed assessment teams today to survey storm damage from a possible tornado in southwest Missouri. On Sunday night, National Weather service radar indicated a tornado likely touched down briefly near Mount Vernon. The detection led to the issuance of a tornado warning for Lawrence County around 8:00 p.m.

A few buildings were reported down about two miles south of Mount Vernon. Destroyed trees were also reported. There were no reports of injuries.

Troopers with the Missouri Highway Patrol tweet pictures from the scene. Elsewhere, strong thunderstorm winds took down large tree limbs at a house near Grovespring in Wright County Sunday night.

Courtesy of Karen Libby with Missourinet television partner station KOLR-10 in Springfield.

Clay Leible is a Columbia native who works for the group that owns Missourinet affiliate KSSZ. He says he was on the way to a coffee shop in Hawaii when phones started getting alerts of an incoming missile.

“All of a sudden, I see my sister look down at it and read it. Her jaw just kind of drops,” Leible says. “It says ‘There are some projectile missiles headed towards Hawaii’ and you’re kind of just thinking ‘Oh crap, what do we do?’

“I mean, it told you to seek shelter, but what kind of shelter do you seek from a bomb?”

The missile scare ended up being a false alarm.

Hawaii emergency management officials say a push alert that warned of an incoming ballistic missile to Hawaii on Saturday was a mistake.

The emergency alert sent to cellphones said in all caps, “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”

Missouri’s transportation system task force is recommending a primary seat belt law, which would allow police officers to enforce the law as a stand-alone offense.

State Rep. Kevin Corlew (R-Kansas City) speaks on the Missouri House floor in February 2017; file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications

Committee chairman State Rep. Kevin Corlew, R-Kansas City, unveiled the recommendations to the Capitol Press Corps on the opening day of the 2018 session.

“We were ranked 50th or last in terms of a safety report by the National Safety Council,” Corlew says. “And that was in large part about some of the legislation that dealt with driver behavior.”

The report says there were 947 traffic fatalities on Missouri roads in 2016, and that sixty percent of victims were not wearing seat belts.

The task force says a primary seat belt law is aimed at saving lives. Chairman Corlew tells reporters it’s important to keep our highways as safe as possible for every motorist.

“One of the things that we found in our hearings was that a primary seat belt law increases seat belt use by about seven percent,” says Corlew.

Corlew was joined at the Jefferson City press conference by House Transportation Committee chairman State Rep. Bill Reiboldt, R-Neosho, who says 64 percent of Missourians killed on the road in 2017 were not wearing seat belts.

The task force is also recommending a ban on texting while driving.

The report reads, in part: “Preliminary 2016 data also indicates cell phones were involved in 2,379 crashes, a 23-percent increase since 2014. People are 23 times more likely to be in a critical incident when a driver texts and drives.”

The Missouri State Highway Patrol has testified that driver inattention is the leading cause of traffic crashes in the Show-Me State.